Josiah Gorgas
Josiah Gorgas (July 1, 1818 – May 15, 1883) was one of the few Northern-born Confederate generals in the American Civil War. As chief of ordnance, he managed to keep the Confederate armies supplied with weapons and ammunition, despite the Union blockade and even though the South had hardly any munitions industry before the war began. He kept diaries during the Civil War which are now a popular subject of study for historians. Early life Josiah Gorgas was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from West Point in 1841 and was assigned to the Ordnance Department. He served in the Mexican-American War and was promoted to captain in 1855. In 1853, he married Amelia Gayle, daughter of former Alabama governor John Gayle. Their first son, William Crawford Gorgas, was born in 1854. William would later become Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. Gorgas served in arsenals in different parts of the country before the Civil War broke out. He was commanding the Frankford Arsenal when he resigned from the United States Army. Civil War He followed his wife into secession, moved to Richmond and became chief of ordnance for the Confederacy. In this capacity, he worked to create an armaments industry almost from scratch. The South had no foundry except the Tredegar Iron Works. There were no rifle works except small arsenals in Richmond, and Fayetteville, North Carolina, plus the captured machines from the Union armory in Harpers Ferry. Gorgas established armories and foundries, found alternative sources for saltpeter, and created a huge gunpowder mill at Augusta, Georgia. Thanks to his efforts, the Southern armies never lacked weapons, though they were short on almost everything else. On November 10, 1864, Gorgas was promoted to brigadier general. Postbellum After the war, Gorgas accepted a position at the newly established University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1878, he was elected president of the University of Alabama and moved to the house that is still known as Gorgas House. In 1883, he died, after which his wife became the university's librarian. The main university library is named the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library. See also *List of American Civil War generals References *Frank E. Vandiver, ed., The Civil War Diary of General Josiah Gorgas (University of Alabama, 1947) *Frank E. Vandiver, Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance (Austin, Texas, 1952) *McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988) *Wiggins, Sarah Woolfolk, ed., The Journals of Josiah Gorgas 1857-1878 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995) External links *[http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Gorgas_Josiah_1818-1883 Josiah Gorgas in Encyclopedia Virginia] *[http://www.sewaneemuseum.org/Sewanee-s-FiveGenerals.html Brigadier-General Josiah Gorgas- the third of "Sewanee's Five Generals"] *Smithsonian: West Point in the making of America *Josiah Gorgas article, Encyclopedia of Alabama Category:1818 births Category:1883 deaths Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Category:Confederate States Army generals Category:United States Military Academy alumni Category:Sewanee: The University of the South Category:University of Alabama people Category:People of Virginia in the American Civil War Category:People from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania da:Josiah Gorgas fr:Josiah Gorgas nl:Josiah Gorgas pl:Josiah Gorgas